Slavery in Latin America - Coursework Example

Slavery in Latin America Introduction Slavery was one of the major social problems prevailed in ancient societies. The thirst for dominating others has started even from evolution of human history. Holy Bible has lots of examples of slavery and even in the old testaments we can see many examples. Even in the current world slavery exists in different forms in different countries. African countries are infamous for apartheid. Latin America is another region in which slavery was prominent. Andrews, G.R. (2004) has started his book on the history of Africans in Latin America by quoting the experience of British clergyman Robert Walsh. He has mentioned that Robert Walsh was surprised to see the volume and diversity of black population in Brazil during the period around the 1820 - 1830’s (Sveinsson). Slavery in different forms like economics, politics, ecology and demographics was existed in Latin America for centuries. This paper briefly explains different forms of slavery existed in Latin America. Slavery in Latin America The history of slavery begun in Latin America when the Europeans arrived in there in the 15 th century. Europeans encountered little resistance from the Native American Indians because of the less developments or economic progress in Latin America at that period. Europeans were far ahead than the Latin Americans socially, economically, technologically and intellectually at that time which helped them to overcome the resistance of indigenous population easily. Slavery is generally visible in the form of labor. Dominant people use the slaves for carrying out their works. These works may include hard and dangerous works which others might not be able to or dare to do. For example, Sveinsson has reported that forced indigenous labor was used to mine and refine the silver in Bolivia by the monarchs during in the nineteenth century. Moreover he has also mentioned that slaves carried out a wide range of tasks of squires, muleteers, cowboys, blacksmiths, domestic servants, gold miners, pearl divers, sugar cane cultivators etc in Columbia (Sveinsson). “One of the salient features of American history is the existence of a black African population on the continent. In the Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada, the role played by this racial group in the productive process was a major one, especially in the mining sector” (Slavery in Colombia) Columbia was one of the worst affected states in Latin America as far as slavery is concerned. Low and slow economic progress contributed heavily to slavery. Economic problems can generate undesirable social activities. Slavery is one among them. Most of the slaves earlier used in mining, one of the most difficult jobs. Mining is one of the dangerous works which always create dangers at the work site. The life of the slaves was not taken seriously by the dominant community and exploited them in the mining industries to make profits. The article, Slavery in America has revealed that as many as 15 million people were transported as slaves, between Africa and Latin America with unknown numbers dying on the way because of lack of food and diseases (Slavery in America). The enslaved population mainly worked in the plantation and mining sectors which require hard labor. At the same time slaves were not offered any better living conditions. The pathetic living conditions resulted in serious diseases and death was a common thing among slaves. Slavery is not an old story. It is still prevalent in some of the Latin American countries. “In a recent police raid, Bolivian boys were discovered working as slaves in Argentine factories. These boys were forced to work 19-hour shifts, were prohibited from leaving, and are often beaten to keep up the pace” (Country Report: Argentina). Poverty is one of the major reasons for the current slavery. Latin American countries are generally poor countries with limited resources. Child labor is a common thing in this region. But one of the pathetic things about child labor is that children were forced to work even in two to three shifts or 15 to 20 hours daily. These children were forced to give up their education to support their family. Economic collapse and social unrest is one of the major reasons for slavery in Argentina. The decrease in police control helped the people form neighboring countries to cross the border to reach Argentina. The Argentineans on the other hand exploit this helpless immigrants and slavery is common even now in Argentinean societies. Sexual exploitation of minors is also a major worrying factor in Argentina. The continual shipment of large numbers of Africans to Latin America gave slaves certain advantages also compared to slaves in other parts of the world. Latin American slaves were allowed to marry and even they were able to buy freedom (Michelle). Slavery is a big business which helps the dominant community to make immense profit. Slaves don’t have the right to make trade unions to fight for better working conditions. Whatever the wages or working conditions provided by the landlord, should be accepted by the slaves. They don’t have the right to protest against their landlords. The white population considered slaves as second class citizens in Latin America. For them the creator has created two types of human in the earth; white and black; white for ruling and the black for obeying. The dominant white population in Latin America never honored human right issues. For them, life was for enjoyment and that also at the expense of others; mainly the black community. The white population did not find many differences between animals and the black people. For them both animals and black community was created for the wellbeing of the white population. They have put themselves in a privileged position in the books of the creator. Slavery occurs in many forms. Apart from the mentioned forced labor oriented slavery, Debt bondage and sexual slavery are also dominant in Latin America. Debt bondage Bonded labor is the most widely practiced form of slavery around the world. In Southeast Asia, where it is most prevalent, debt bondage claims an estimated 15 to 20 million victims (Types of Slavery). In this type of slavery, the people who have borrowed some money form a landlord forced to undertake slavery in case he fails to repay the amount. Latin America is famous for debt bondage. In most of the debt bondage cases, the lender enforces strict rules and regulations for the money they are lending. Moreover, huge interest rates and strict rules for the repayment will be enforced. The person who has taken such money will find it extremely difficult to repay the money because of the tight repay norms. In such cases the lender will ask the person to become slave. Thus debt bondage is also another form of slavery. Sexual Slavery in Latin America Sexual slavery is another social evil for which Latin America is famous for. Goolsby (n. d) has mentioned that more than half of all women in Latin America have suffered some form of violent act even now. 33% of these women have been victims of sexual exploitation whereas 45% have been insulted and harassed (Goolsby). Rape and prostitution are common things in Latin American societies. Sex trafficking networks are operating mainly in countries like Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela. Even small children of the age of 12 are used for sexual exploitations. Kidnapping is a common way of finding people for sexual exploitation. Latin American countries especially Columbia is the core of global drug mafia networks. Conclusions Slavery was a social evil which was prevalent in many countries earlier. Even though slavery has abolished in many countries legally, still it is evident in many countries in different forms. Debt bondage, sexual slavery and forced labor slavery etc are the major forms of slaveries in the world. Latin America was one of the worst affected regions as far as slavery is concerned. Slavery and child labor are still prevalent in this region at least in secret form. Latin American countries are generally poor countries and their economic conditions were not much good compared to other countries. Drug mafia, human trafficking, sexual exploitations etc are common things in this region. Slavery occurs in the world because of different perceptions about human life. The dominant white community considers black community as second class citizens. The privileges enjoyed by the white community were denied to the black community. Slavery in any form is a social evil which should be prohibited legally and the current civilized generation should understand that there are no differences between black and white people. The color of the skin should not be barrier for treating all the people equally. Works Cited 1. “Country Report: Argentina”. 01 March 2010. 2. Goolsby, Charles M., Jr. “Latin American Women, Children at Risk”. 01 March 2010. 3. Michelle. “The Slave Trade”. 01 March 2010. 4. “Slavery in America”. 01 March 2010. 5. “Slavery in Colombia”. 2009. 01 March 2010. 6. Sveinsson, Kjartan “Topic of the Month - Slavery in Latin America”. 01 March 2010. 7. “Types of Slavery”. 01 March 2010. Read More